nice muscle up Allberg looking easy 
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Once my pain is rehabilitated Iām going to start doing these for reps. 
Thanks for stopping by chief. Congrats on your PR!
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Nice work with the muscle up man!
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If you can do a muscle up with a hurt shoulder, I canāt wait to see what you do when youāre at 100%.
And about the T Nation community thing, I completely agree. There are exactly zero people who I can talk to about my training and nutrition in person, so logging onto the forums every day is honestly always a highlight for me. Iāve received countless encouraging and congratulatory words from the little group we have here, which is infinitely more than Iāve gotten in real life. Thereās a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and I think that communicating with our small posse online gives confidence. Getting compliments and congratulations in person all the time would almost definitely blow my ego up immediately.
Donāt lose sight of the fact that you are doing a great job with your diet. When I first came to your log (probably 2-3 weeks ago, now) I saw your first posts and some pictures that you put up. Youāve come a LONG way. And you said something about how your body may be in a transitional stage right now, and I think thatās absolutely correct. Youāve lost a good amount of fat recently, and thatās something to be very proud of.
All that being said, I plan on dieting down at the beginning of 2019, and I would love any and all insight/advice that you have to give. My fitness goals are still essentially to get stronger, but I have a long time to do that. Devoting 4, 6, 8 months to getting more lean than Iāve ever been will be far more rewarding than having an extra 10lbs on my bench max in 20 years!! I have no way of measuring my BF% so I think all I can do is post pictures and gauge the progress visually.
Keep up all the good work brother
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I just use anger and some carbs/protein lol
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Nice muscle up!!
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Itās a shame really, Iād love to have people in real life that shares this interest. While hitting the gym isnāt a fringe interest it would seem as doing so with any dedication is.
Thanks, man, this means a lot!
Honestly, I canāt think of anything outside of the ordinary that isnāt covered already on T-nation. Meal prep might be the most important thing. Some people can get away with not weighing anything, and eat by feel. I cannot. Furthermore, by weighing things it becomes very easy to adjust down when fat loss stalls. So, for an example, I remember Berardi having some rules of thumb to build a plate, that Iād use to build a plate when eating out (if portions are self-served) I wouldnāt use it to build my lunchboxes (Iāll explain why in a second). The rules are,
- Protein: 2 palms,
- Veggies: 2 fists,
- Carbs: 2 cupped hands,
- Fat: 2 thumbs.
I prefer weighing things when I have the opportunity to do so as eventually, youāll have to dial back on portion sizes and not just meal frequency. I canāt be certain I can eyeball 1.5 palms reliably.
Iād say this though, if you can do it now, start doing cardio and toss some sprints in every now and again. I was very unaccustomed to this particular stress and hurt my Achilles substantially and wouldnāt have if Iād built up to it beforehand.
Try to figure out how you fare with eating the same thing over and over again. I can swing ground beef/chicken for lunch every day of the week and be only mildly bored, but others will need more variety. I create my variety using spices.
If you can figure this out beforehand youāll save yourself some pain later when composing your first weekly meal plan.
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Sunday, 2nd of September
Weight: 75.7kg (-0.6kg since yesterday. -0.4kg over the week). Target weight for this week was 75.6kg. Had I slept half an hour more I wouldāve made the weight.
Sleep: ~7 hours
- Weight: 75.7 kg.
- Shoulders: 114.5 cm (no change)
- (Lower) Waist: 78.5 cm (-0.5cm)
- Chest: 95 cm (no change)
- Arm: 30.5 cm (+0.5cm)
- Neck: 36 cm (no change)
- Calf: 36 cm (+1cm (doubtful))
- Thigh: 54.5 cm (-1cm)
Forgot a leg pic, sorry. Not a huge change there anyway.
I was a bit bloated towards my lower abdomen but that barely shows in the pictures. More detail coming in around rib cage, lost some upper ab definition from the lack of direct ab work on this program.
Weekly meal plan (this will be convoluted):
Pre-workout (141 calories, 13.1p, 19.9c, 0.5f)
- 20g maltodextrin
- 16g whey
- 6-8g sea salt
- 5g Cinnamon
Intra-workout (323 calories, 39p, 43c, 0f) (Monday/Tuesday: 228 calories, 39p, 19c, 0f)
- 45g maltodextrin (except for on Monday and Tuesday, when itās 20g. More on this later)
- 40g BCAA
- 6-8g sea salt
Post-workout/Breakfast (356 calories, 54p, 25c, 3f)
- 100g blueberries
- 100g pineapple
- 1 scoop whey
- 1 scoop casein
Lunch (461 calories, 47.5p, 17.5c, 19.5f)
- 8g Omega-3s
- 200g ground chicken
- 300g frozen vegetable mix
Dinner A (Monday, Thursday, Friday) (429 calories, 28p, 19c, 24f)
- 6g Omega-3s
- 3 eggs
- 300g frozen vegetable mix
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Dinner B (Tuesday) (505 calories, 40p, 22c, 11.3f)
- 6g Omega-3s
- 250g cottage cheese
- 300g frozen vegetable mix
Dinner C (Saturday, Sunday) (414 calories, 36p, 17c, 20.4f)
- ~140g salmon. Got a hold of some freshly caught salmon. Slightly larger filƩs than I had last week
- 300g frozen vegetable mix
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Pre-bed snack (519 calories, 37p, 35c, 24f)
- 25g almonds
- 5g glycine
- 10g gelatine
- 40g olives
- 100g quark 0.2%
- 100g saurkraut + a probiotic.
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp psyllium husks
- 40g rye oats (not on Monday and Tueday)
- 5g cinnamon
- 5g Cocoa nibs (NEW!)
Monday: 1930 calories, 201p, 107c, 70f
Tuesday: 1966 calories, 214p, 128c, 61f (Planned climbing session)
Wednesday: 1609 calories (planned), 171p, 113c, 46f + Work dinner of unknown contents. Will have a short AM workout on this day
Thursday: 2118 calories, 218p, 155c, 69f
Friday: 2118 calories, 218p, 155c, 69f
Saturday: 1830 calories, 172p, 75c, 87f
Sunday: 1830 calories, 172p, 75c, 87f
Todayās activities:
- 2h bouldering session, tremendously active session. Finished off with chin-up singles with 30 kilos.
- 20 minute inline ride,
- 40 minute walk with my weight vest loaded with 8 kilos.
Total calories today: 2265 calories (206p/111c/102f). I had some cottage cheese, quark, banana and blueberries after the climbing session (and I drank 20g BCAAs during). Still felt completely bonked afterwards so I added some granola and 2 rice cakes to that and felt fine after that.
Going into the new week I feel pretty good, I missed my target weight just barely and I came below it on several days throughout the week so I donāt feel as if Iāve failed at all. I mean, had I just slept a little longer I would have lost the discrepancy.
As those of you who follow my log know I was sick for about a week, and Iām following a 6 week program. This kind of threw me off a bit, and I still kept with the prescribed progression. If we were to continue on in the same fashion then tomorrow would mark the start of Week 4 on the program, which means dropping a few reps and adding a few pounds to the bar.
During the week Iāve missed quite a few prescribed reps on upper body movements so while I feel ready to start Week 4 on my lower body movements I cannot say the same for my upper body movements.
Curiously, then, I noted is that my target date to end my diet is further away than I had calculated in my plans. So, I have room to spare and can treat the next week as Week 3 if I want to. Iāll be deciding tomorrow on how Iāll play it out.
If I were going to start Week 4 for both my upper body and lower body movements tomorrow, then the āextraā week, as it were, thatāll be towards the end of this month Iād go in and do some work in the 6-12 rep range. This would give me some reprieve from the high intensity work Iāve been putting in before the start of my next program (Built for Battle) which is also very intense.
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A buffer week would be good but itās also good to not miss any reps. I know you have plans and dates in mind but maybe you just push everything back a week. Repeat week 3 and hit your working weights. Add a buffer week before you start B4B too.
Itās one extra week of the year. Itās not a big deal. Youāll learn to be a bit more fluid with your schedule and time tables the longer you do this. You learn from experience not to force things to make them fit your schedule. You let your body dictate the schedule.
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Indeed. Good suggestion! Yeah, Iāll play it that way.
Dude, your back is looking BIG. I see a very nasty V-taper in your future. I also see that serratus anterior which is a great sign that youāre making progress. You canāt see ribs or the serratus on fat people, lol. Your pecs are looking big, and honestly the only thing (which youāre working on with the diet, obviously) is the area of stubborn belly fat that literally everyone has. I have it, itās annoying as hell. Overall, you look great. Congrats!
Yup, Iām gonna agree with Maier here and say that you would be doing yourself a good service by repeating week 3. Weāll just pretend that week 3 hasnāt happened yet, and any progress that you made during the first week 3 is just icing on the cake.
Again, I agree with Maier. You can still throw in an extra week of 6-12 rep work after this diet as a buffer before BFB. I can relate and appreciate to how date and goal-oriented you are; thatās one mark of a truly productive person. Big like big J said, itās just one extra week. You know as well as anybody that our bodies take their sweet time adapting to what we do to and for themāit may actually end up being a good thing (and I wouldnāt be surprised if it was) if you take a buffer week after running the full course of this program and your diet.
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i swear youāve gained a little muscle even while dietingā¦ impressive stuff!
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Thanks! Rock climbing helps with the back development. Glad you noticed the serratus, Iām quite happy with it. I believe that my warm-up helps to develop it T Nation Content - T NATION
Yeah, that pouch of abdominal fat is a real fucker. I believe in my case itās a bit of excess skin as well but Iāve read that it can take an entire year for the skin to catch up after significant weight loss.
Yep, running week 3 now.
Iām actually very excited about this buffer week, I need a little bit of a ārestā.
It is possible 
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Nice muscle up
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As far as cheating on my diet is concerned, except for a few grapes, bananas, kale, a brazil nut here and there, and extra veggies that have gotten me through feeling generally bonked and lethargic Iāve abstained any dietary distractions/mistakes for 7 complete weeks.
Today, our colleagues from London are over visiting (thatās why we have the dinner on Wednesday for instance). And, one of them brought some dried meat made South African style, which is served as a snack. Iāve had slightly less than a cupped hand, I want to import his butcher here. So. Unbelievably. Good.
But yeah, Iād say this was ācheatingā even though it wasnāt say, a donut, or junk food. Itās justā¦ meat.
Iām still definitely coming in under maintenance today regardless of my cheat as Iām running on fewer carbs and I havenāt added those calories in as fats/protein. Should I have done that @danteism? Is the key just to be carb-depleted or do you want to run a larger deficit as well?
Depends on what your cheat meal is going to look like; be carb depleted if itās a lot of carbs but not that much fat, be overall depleted if it has a lot of fat and carbs
Now in my opinion being overall quite depleted and having a lot of both carbs and fat in that meal would be best in your case
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Iāll get there without a doubt. Cheers mate.
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Tuesday, 4th of September
Weight: 75.4kg (-0.9kg)
Sleep: <8hrs, I really need to try and fix this
Mirror: Looked really good.
Workout
4 circuits
Top-half deadlift 7,7,7 @ 150kg, 7@170kg [0]
Deadlift 3, 3, 1, @ 130kg, 7 @ 110kg [1]
Power clean from hang 5 reps at 50kg
Jump good morning kettlebell 10 reps at 32
Broad jump series 10 reps
4 circuits [2]
Top-half bench press 7 reps @ 90kg [3]
Bench Press 7, 5, 4, 5 @ 65 [4]
Speed bench press 7@45kg
Medicine ball chest throw 7kg 10 reps
Plyo pushup 10 reps
[0]: I usually run my first set on 150, it was heavy. Kept with it because I thought I was missing reps on normal deadlifts, see next point
[1]: I miscalculated the weight on the bar. My intended weight to run was 110, and I was rolling with 130 for three circuits before I figured out my mistake. I thought I was missing reps and as such, I kept my rack pulls ālightā. Once I noticed my error and stripped the surplus the weight was easy.
[2]: My shoulder pain really flared up on the second circuit. Pressing tends to trigger the pain but never make it worse, today was an exception. I should have cut my workout short here and maybe hit my triceps/chest using some exercise that doesnāt hurt. I did the remaining two circuits on stubbornness alone.
[3]: At the start of my third circuit I couldnāt even budge the weight. Went back to a wider grip and it shot up easily.
[4]: Continuing to miss reps. I blame the shoulder pain.
Notes: I thought I was really worn on the deadlifts but turns out I was going 20kg heavier than I thought. During the second circuit, I even thought that Iād have to cut out climbing as my back and my right hamstring was really struggling but now with the benefit of hindsight I feel fine to climb tonight.
Have you changed your grip for the top half presses? Was going wider more normal?
Yeah, so, I used to bench press with a really wide grip. Snatch grip wide. Seeing as my shoulder pain still persists I figured Iād take a somewhat narrower grip, but hey the pain is still around. So, when I couldnāt even budge the bar on that one circuit I decided to try to go back to my wider grip and then I got all seven reps that I was going for.
My grip width does not seem to have an impact on whether or not I press with pain, it seems to be more related to me mainting upper back tightness. Shrugging while pressing has helped a bit, but not a lot.
My physio thinks I have two problems,
- My left pec is significantly larger than my right. This doesnāt show well in pictures but definitely in person
- I must have suffered, as rare as it is, a mild muscle tear in one of my back muscles.
I never asked specifically what muscle he thinks I suffered the tear in, and my best guess is that itās the levator scapula. In hindsight I think I suffered the tear while trying to perform a high pull.
The tear will heal, eventually, and I work on the muscle imbalance with rehab work.
After that diagnosis, Iāve noticed a few more quirks that weāll look at next Wednesday.
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